Since broadcast television was introduced in the 1930s, television stations and networks have been paid to advertise products and services in conjunction with scheduled programming. Such advertising is often in the form of commercials that are broadcast during breaks in program content. A common problem with such commercials from the point of view of the viewer is that they interrupt the programming that the viewer would like to watch. Another problem with commercials from the point of view of the advertiser is that it is difficult to track the effectiveness of a given ad in encouraging a given viewer to purchase something advertised in a commercial.
A further problem has been the development of the digital video recorders (DVR), which allows a viewer to “fast-forward” through commercials and thereby avoid their impact entirely. Many DVR systems also allow a viewer to “pause” or “rewind” a television program. This feature is commonly used by DVR users when television viewing is interrupted, e.g., by a telephone call. Some viewers may use a DVR to pause or even rewind a program to get a closer look at something shown in the course of a broadcast.
To enhance revenue streams for broadcasters and to make advertising less intrusive to viewers, some programs include advertising in a form referred to herein as “product placement.” In this type of advertising, a product, or the logo or trademark for the product, appears in a television program as part of the program. For example, a program may show a character ostentatiously drinking from a can marked with the logo of a popular brand or soft drink or driving a particular make and model of automobile, with the manufacturer's trademark prominently displayed. Although these advertisements are less intrusive than conventional television commercials, their impact on consumers may be lessened for this very reason.
A major change in the nature of television for both advertisers and consumers arose with the advent of digital television. Introduced in the late 1990s, digital television (DTV) technology appealed to the television broadcasting business and consumer electronics industries as offering new consumer services and business opportunities that were impractical with previous analog television. Digital television is more flexible and efficient than analog television. When properly used by broadcasters, digital television allows higher-quality images and sound and more programming choices than analog does. In DTV moving images and sound are sent and received by means of discrete (digital) signals, in contrast to the analog signals used by analog television. Digital television includes, but is not limited to Digital Terrestrial Television (DTTV or DTT), which is an implementation of digital technology to provide a greater number of channels and/or better quality of picture and sound using aerial broadcasts to a conventional antenna (or aerial) as opposed to a satellite dish or cable connection.
The development of digital television has lead to many changes in television broadcasting and related industries. Many countries have mandated a change from an analog television signal format to a new digital format. One example of such a digital television broadcast standard was developed by the Advanced Television Systems Committee. With a conventional analog television broadcast, a video signal modulates a carrier wave signal that is broadcast by a transmission tower. A television set contains a receiver that detects broadcast signals. The receiver includes a tuner that selects a particular channel according to its carrier frequency and a demodulator that extracts the video signal from the modulated carrier signal. With a digital television signal, the video signal is generated in a digital format or an analog video signal is converted to a digital format to produce a digital signal. The carrier wave is modulated according to the digital signal format, e.g., using vestigial sideband (VSB) modulation. This new format allows data for additional digital services to be broadcast along with a regular television signal. Examples of such services may include real time stock quotes, sports, weather and traffic updates and other services traditionally associated with delivery via two-way media, such as the internet, digital wireless services or cellular telephone services.
Digital broadcasting allows broadcasters to provide ancillary data or control data associated with program content. For example, some digital radio broadcast signals include data identifying program content, such as a program title or the name and/or artist of a song played over a digital broadcast. A digital radio receiver can display this information, e.g., on a text display. Some systems can even use this data to allow a user to download content. This type of two-way activity is relatively easy to implement in digital radio, which is essentially a one dimensional audio medium. However, the multi-dimensional audio-video nature of television makes such two-way activity problematic for digital television systems.
The delivery of digital services by a primarily one-way medium through digital broadcast presents certain challenges and problems. Providing a link between programming broadcast over digital television broadcast channels and data that is accessible on demand presents certain problems and opportunities heretofore unrecognized in the art.
It is within this context that embodiments of the present invention arise.